The Kenya Bankers Association has launched a Sh2.5 billion plan to migrate all banks to secure automated teller machines and plastic cards. Nearly 11 million cards will be affected.

The 43 banks, which will share the cost are expected to be fully compliant with the chip technology that targets

fraud reduction by September 30 this year. Fraud has been identified as one of the major weaknesses in the fast-growing banking industry.

ATM, credit and debit cards will be implanted with a chip instead of the widely used magnetic strip.

“A few banks have complied but we are not sure whether this is full compliance or partial. All we expect is that by the end of September all will have complied,” said KBA chief executive Habil Olaka last week.

According to Central Bank of Kenya data, there were more than 10.7 million ATM, debit and credit cards in circulation by end of last year.

Mr Olaka said KBA is working with its members to migrate the ATM machines to the global standard called Europay Mastercard and Visa System (EMV)-compliant chip and PIN technology.

“Kenya is one of the countries in Africa making the shift to EMV compliance placing the country at par with the rest of the world in enhancing fraud mitigation systems,” said Mr Olaka.

KBA communications head Nuru Mugambi said a KBA research had found that many ATM card owners shared their PINs with relatives and other close associates thereby compromising security of bank accounts.